- Can I get a Free Estimate?
- When Do I Need An Arborist?
- Do I Ask for an Estimate or A Consult?
- Why are there wide price differences between Companies?
- Will Hivernant Match a Competitor's price?
- What Does Hivernant Mean?
- Is Your Tree "Expert" an Arborist?
- What is Arboriculture?
- What is an ISA Certified Arborist
- How Does Hivernant Dispose of Debris?
- Why is Topping Trees Bad?
Is Your Tree "Expert" an Arborist?
All Arborists are Tree Experts, but not all "Experts" are Arborists.
According to the International Society of Arboriculture:
"An arborist is a specialist in the care of individual trees. Arborists are knowledgeable about the needs of trees and are trained and equipped to provide proper care. Hiring an arborist is a decision that should not be taken lightly.
Proper tree care is an investment that can lead to substantial returns. Well-cared-for trees are attractive and can add considerable value to your property. Poorly maintained trees can be a significant liability. Pruning or removing trees, especially large trees, can be dangerous work.
Tree work should be done only by those trained and equipped to work safely in trees."
Arborists look at your particular situation and give consideration to your needs, the needs of your trees; how any work will affect your property and other trees; and they think in "tree time."
Let's face it, trees live a mighty long time! And even though they can do some things pretty quickly, their long term survival efforts take years to accomplish. Tree time is all about how choices and decisions made today will affect tomorrow.
This means that when you work with an Arborist they help you get the right work done today at a reasonable price and help you save money in the future by taking into consideration what the trees are likely to do.
Some folks like to think of it as a "whole environment" approach to taking care of their property. In fact, that is very much part of what "Arboriculture" means.
Your Personal Arborists at Hivernant are students and practitioners of Arboriculture.
What is Arboriculture?
The word Arboriculture comes from two root words: "Arbor", meaning tree and "Culture" meaning to cultivate. However Arboriculture is not to be confused with sylviculture which is all about growing trees for harvest.
Arboriculture is about trees in the landscape and understanding how they interrelate with all the other components of the landscape. Here the word "culture" is well suited as it also describes how your trees relate to their "community".
Arboriculture is also about the "Science" of trees and their care. There is much research being done today to better understand:
- How and why trees decay.
- What their life cycle is truly like.
- Why some trees handle stress better than others.
- How trees handle wind.
- How different types of pruning affect trees.
These questions and more are being addressed by researchers to help us better understand the entire "culture" of trees within the urban, suburban and homestead forests.
We Arborists then incorporate this knowledge and information into the practices, recommendations and treatments we offer when helping you meet your particular needs.
What is an ISA Certified Arborist?
The International Society of Arboriculture is the premier international certifying body within the Tree Care Industry. Here is how they define a Certified Arborist:
An arborist by definition is an individual who is trained in the art and science of planting, caring for, and maintaining individual trees.
ISA arborist certification is a nongovernmental, voluntary process by which individuals can document their base of knowledge. It operates without mandate of law and is an internal, self-regulating device administered by the International Society of Arboriculture.
Certification provides a measurable assessment of an individual’s knowledge and competence required to provide proper tree care. Certification is not a measure of standards of practice. Certification can attest to the tree knowledge of an individual but cannot guarantee or ensure quality performance.
Certified Arborists are individuals who have achieved a level of knowledge in the art and science of tree care through experience and by passing a comprehensive examination developed by some of the nation’s leading experts on tree care.
Certified Arborists must also continue their education to maintain their certification. Therefore, they are more likely to be up to date on the latest techniques in arboriculture.
How Does Hivernant Dispose of Tree Debris?
Hivernant is committed to being good stewards for our environment and the sustainable, responsible use, and re-use, of our our natural resources.
That is why Hivernant puts much effort into recycling as much of the debris from our work as possible.
Brush is almost always chipped to be used as mulch or as fuel to generate electricity at Burlington Electric's Mc Neil Generating Station.
Wood and trunk sections usually find themselves used for heating, occasionally converted to lumber, or chipped by CSWD and used to fuel the Mc Neil Plant in Burlington.
Why Are There Sometimes Wide Differences in Price Between Companies?
Everyone asks, “is this a good price?”, “is this the best price?”
Nobody wants to pay more than necessary. We don't, and certainly neither do you.
Bidding tree work is fairly straight forward but each company has it's own set of skills, tricks-of-the-trade and it's own unique overhead. Consequently there may be different ways of approaching the project, different tools and equipment to be specified and different levels of care, knowledge and concern for your needs.
We believe that it is always best to plan on taking the right amount of time to do things carefully and to do them well. Sometimes we are the low bidder. Sometimes we are the high bidder. Most of the time we are somewhere in the middle.
Hivernant Arborists understand that price ofetn plays a role in whether or not you will hire us to do your work. Even though we won’t always be the lowest bidder, we will always be an Honest Bidder and we will give you our best price the first time!
Will Hivernant Arborists Match a Competitor's Bid?
Our goal is to provide You with our best price right up front. And we suspect that you would prefer it that way too.
If we end up being able to complete your work for less than orginally anticipated we will certainly pass savings on to you.
We have promised to give you our best price first. If we are willing "match" a competitor's price it demonstrates that we didn't keep our original promise. If you can't trust us to keep our first promise, why should you trust us with your valuable property and trees?
Honesty and Integrity, they are not just words that look good. They actually mean something at Hivernant Arborists. You deserve nothing less.
Estimate or Consult?
When it comes to getting proposals for tree work it is sometimes confusing whether or not you are asking your Personal Arborist for a Basic Estimate or Consultation.
At Hivernant all Basic Estimates are Free!
The main difference between the two is that one deals with specific work you already know you want done while the other helps you decide what work you want done.
What makes for a Basic Estimate?
- Known Work Such as:
- Take Down Tree X
- Fertilize Y & Z
- Remove the dead limbs from Tree R
- Specific Goals such as:
- Let more light into the garden
- Relieve encroachment on my roof
- I want to be able to walk under these trees
- Size of the project:
- Fewer than 10 large trees
- One or two scenario options given by Customer
- Project lasting less than 2 days.
- Preparation of the proposal is straight forward
- The Necessary site visit Takes less than 30 minutes
- Travel time to the site is minimal.
- Planning and write up time is less than 45 minutes.
- Usually no proposal re-writes or updates expected.
Here are some identifiers of a Consultation:
- If you want professional opinions, knowlege, advise or diagnostics outside quick common knowlege such as:
- "Tell me what my trees need?"
- "How is it done?"
- "What is wrong with my tree?"
- "Help me develop a plan for my trees."
- Developing specifications that can be used to request proposals from multiple providers.
- Vague or Undecided Goals such as:
- Do what is best for my trees...
- Tell me what I should do...
- Size of the project:
- Generally more than 10 large trees
- Long Project length
- Several proposal scenario options given by Customer
- Coordination of, or with, other service providers
- Preparation of the proposal is complex
- The Necessary site visit Takes more 30 minutes
- Travel time to the site is larger.
- Planning and write up time is more than 45 minutes.
- Multiple Proposals updates or re-writes expected.
Of course there can be a lot of gray area between the two types of requests and usually if we spend a few moments on the phone we can sort it out.
Conversely, sometimes after we have begun the site visit, we may find that what you really need is a consult.
In any case, we will be sure to let you know right away so that you may make an informed decision before any charges are incurred.
Can I get A free Estimate?
As always, Basic Estimates are free of charge.
As long as you know exactly what you want done, don’t need our planning or consultation services and the site visit will take 30 minutes or less then your project likely qualifies for a Basic Estimate.
Estimates are done one of several ways:
- If you do not feel the need to meet with an arborist, the easiest and quickest way is for you to mark the trees and provide us with additional information so we can swing by between jobs, take notes and get back to you with a proposal.
- If you wish to meet with one of our arborists we can arrange to have one stop buy during a specified time block. We offer two time blocks, 12:00 to 2:00 and 2:30 to 4:30, several days each week. We will arrive sometime during the scheduled block to look at your project together.
If neither of these free options work for you we do offer weekend or evening appointments. However, such appointments fall under the non-basic category and are billable at our prevailing rate, including travel time.
Why is Topping Bad?
The International Society of Arboriculture has compiled reams of data and reports on the subject of topping. Here is what they say about it,
Topping is perhaps the most harmful tree pruning practice known. Yet, despite more than 25 years of literature and seminars explaining its harmful effects, topping remains a common practice...
What is Topping? Topping is the indiscriminate cutting of tree branches to stubs or lateral branches that are not large enough to assume the terminal role.
Other names for topping include “heading,” “tipping,” “hat-racking,” and “rounding over.”
The most common reason given for topping is to reduce the size of a tree.
Home owners often feel that their trees have become too large for their property. People fear that tall trees may pose a hazard.
Topping, however, is not a viable method of height reduction and certainly does not reduce the hazard. In fact, topping will make a tree more hazardous in the long term.
For a more detailed discussion of the costs and consequences here are a couple of external links. Please take a moment to go check them out.
What does Hivernant Mean?
Shortly after Hurricane Charlie hammered South West Florida in 2004 we found ourselves working in the storm cleanup effort. Being from the "north" and clearly spending our winter in Florida the local folks started referring to us as the "Snowbird" tree guys.
As with any region, if visitors are referred to with a common "name" there are probably not too many positive connotations associated with that label. So if we didn't want to be thought of as "Snowbirds" what could should we call ourselves and make light reference to escaping our winter homelands?
The french word "Hiver" (pronounced EE-vair), of course, is "winter" and by adding the suffix "nant" is much like adding "er" in english. So if we were "winter-ers" we most certainly were "Hiver-nant" (pronounced eee-vair-non, or hee-ver-non)
Turns out, in the colonial days of New France, the Mountain Men and Fur Trappers that plied the frozen lands of what is now Canada, the Great Lakes and northern New England earned the title "Hivernant" after having spent at least one winter, or "over wintering" in the wilderness. The word was alos used to mean "Winter Visitor."
Well, if the name "fits!" It fit so well that we brought the name home with us upon our return.